"A Church that doesn't provoke any crisis, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of society in which it is being proclaimed, what gospel is that? Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980) "Never let other people define your reality or put you into bondage to their ways of thinking." Jerry Maneker.

Monday, July 12, 2010

As you know, I've often written on the frivolity and counterproductive aspects of the public persona and the use of self-identifying epithets that all too many professional "activists" and others engage in and applaud that are downright traitorous to the dignity of LGBT people, and to the acquisition of full and equal LGBT rights.

Everything from calling oneself "abnormal" (i.e., "Queer"), to incorporating the oppressor's hate language (i.e., ""Dyke," "Fag," etc.), to fulfilling many of the negative and false stereotypes attributed to Gay people by homophobes, that can be seen in all too many "Pride Parades," undermine, denigrate, and betray the fight for full and equal rights for LGBT people.

Indeed, if I were more paranoid than I already am, I would think that many professional "activists" are in the employ of such homophobes as James Dobson and Peter LaBarbera! If they aren't, they might as well be!

Don Charles has kindly let me reprint his excellent article entitled, The Dumb Dora Award for Dishonorable Honors Goes to Tourism and Gay.Com in its entirety.

I hope that its message is taken to heart by all those who are both activists in the true sense of that term, and by those who have been foolishly misled and/or co-opted into believing that using hateful epithets as self-identifiers, and publicly burlesquing and sexualizing Gay identity, are somehow "edgy" and desirable, which couldn't be further from the truth.

The following is Don Charles' superb article that I hope you take to heart:

The Dumb Dora Award for Dishonorable Honors Goes to Tourism Montréal and Gay.com

Now that Gay Pride Month is over, I can relax a little bit. I always tense up when there's a lot of hypocrisy going on around me! I'll say this to anybody: twenty-first century Gay Pride is a huge joke. I think it's the biggest hoax since Orson Welles staged his fake Martian invasion in 1938.

First of all, putting your sexuality on public display makes no sense to me whatsoever. There's nothing remarkable about sex! Whether you knock boots with boys, girls, or both, it’s just a normal part of being human. Leaving shame about sexuality behind, declaring "This is the way I love, and it's not a sin", I can certainly understand that; but strutting down the middle of the street in fetish wear? It looks kinda forced. I come away from Pride parades thinking most of the participants are fronting like crazy, and nowhere near as proud as they claim to be.

Second, the majority of LGBT folk remain closeted, and many of those who don’t still rationalize the decision to hide in the closet. Maybe it's OK to "out" an anti-Gay politician or clergyman, but speaking the truth about anybody else is strictly verboten (unless it's gossip). I'll never forget the furore that followed disclosure of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan's Lesbian relationship; and God forbid a Gay actor should compromise his career by going public with his affectional preference! Comedienne Joan Rivers got much Gay support for this position when she broached it in a recent interview:

Third, too many members of the so-called Gay community do things that truly proud, truly dignified people don't do! They heavily abuse drugs and alcohol, and gamble their health with unsafe sexual practice. They celebrate the most stereotypical images of themselves imaginable. They faithfully attend churches, mosques and temples where they're utterly despised. For the most part, they respond to societal persecution with either denial, apathy or frivolity. They adopt the vilest of epithets for casual use on themselves.

Let me expand on that last example. In a 7 July post titled “Montréal’s Search for Queer Of The Year”, the editors of advocate.com reported:

This August, Tourism Montréal and Gay.com will bring five contestants to Montréal to compete for the title Queer of the Year. Daniel Baylis, event host and Tourisme-Montréal.org blogger, told The Advocate he can't reveal the celebrity judge panel, or what the top five contestants can look forward to when they arrive to Montréal, but any Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender person from anywhere around the world is welcome to compete. "The contest itself is kept fairly tightly under wraps," he said, "but they will be judged on five criteria: Personality, talent, healthy lifestyle, sex appeal, and a sense of community . . . community involvement is definitely considered a worthy trait, as well as the ability to spread your experience of your trip, should you come to Montréal," he added. "So if you have a Twitter following, or a Facebook following, those are great tools to have, as well." Judging from the people interviewed on the street, "queer" can mean just about anything, from being someone who stands up for their rights, to simply being a male version of Lady Gaga! Prospective contestants must fill out an application and upload their short entry video to YouTube. From there, the video entries are posted on QueerOfTheYear.com, where visitors can vote on their favorite contestants. The top five picks then get to go to Montréal for a quick getaway and contest on August 9.

Lordy mercy! I think I’m going to be sick.

Imagine, if you will, a competition for Nigger, Pollock, Kike, Chink, C*nt or Greaser of The Year. Wouldn't those respective communities be up in arms? Wouldn't the National Organization for Women have a f*cking cow? Wouldn't the Black media be riddled with outraged editorials? Even less inflammatory honors like Jew, Hispanic or Asian Of The Year sound uncomfortably patronizing; no public agency run by conscientious staff would ever want to go there. Yet French Canadian officials think it's safe to go there with us! Pourquoi?

They're undoubtedly aware that LGBT folk never heard a disparaging name they didn't love. Ethnic groups and women are known to trade race and gender-based slurs among themselves, but they're not in the habit of posting them on banners like we do! We also incorporate slurs into our organization titles, plaster them all over our media, and encourage Straight people to use them. (Whatever would they have thought of that last development at Stonewall?) We've pushed "reclamation" theory as far as it can possibly go (right off the edge of a cliff). Some of us are so enamored of hate speech that we'll shout down anybody who dares to criticize the casual way we use it. I know this is true from having been the one shouted down! (If only we'd put as much passion into equality activism!)

How many times have I heard Transfolk swear up and down that "queer" is a "unifying" term? How many times has a Lesbian claimed that "dyke" is a symbol of strength? How many times have Gay men said "queen", "homo" and "faggot" to one another as if these cruel epithets were badges of honor? Far more times than I can count.

The argument that we can somehow drain these ignorant labels of their toxicity isn’t any more convincing today than it was 25 years ago, but large numbers of us subscribe to it. In Gay activist circles, group RadicalSpeak is all but mandatory. Our language simply must be on the cutting edge, even if that edge cuts both ways; we're hooked on hate speech like some people get hooked on crystal meth! I can't fathom what kind of a high it produces, but it's obviously a potent one. Anybody who's willing to debase himself in a “Queer Of The Year” contest is strung out for real.

This addictive behavior reminds me of the old Tareyton cigarette commercials I saw on TV as a child. Patrons of the product would light up, glare into the camera and snarl: I'd rather fight than switch! That's when you'd notice that one of their eyes had been blackened. Later on, we found out that their lungs were black, too! We learned how bad inhaled tobacco was for our health, and how the rugged Marlboro Man had died of lung cancer.

Cigarettes are a perfect metaphor for heterosexist hate speech. "Reclaimed" slurs are just cancer-causing agents of a different kind. The cancer they grow within us eats away at our intelligence and self-esteem so that we no longer care if people demean and objectify us. Insults start to sound like endearments. Exploitation begins to feel like praise. Marginal status is mistaken for identity. It's amazing, how tangled our perceptions get when internalized shame holds us fast in its clutches.

Residual homophobia notwithstanding, most of the Western world has learned to feel affection for its "queers". We're such adorable pets, aren't we? Always ripe fodder for a "Saturday Night Live" skit, a late night comedy monologue, or a tacky "fagsploitation" scheme! In an objectifying context, “Queer Of The Year” awards make perfect sense. We've come to the point where society tolerates, derives amusement from and even celebrates people it considers freakish. Yet it still denies us basic respect. Why shouldn’t it, though, when we show so little respect for ourselves?

Many LGBT folk seem satisfied with this degree of acceptance. They enjoy playing the Happy Pervert no end. When patronizing entities like Tourism Montréal and Gay.com call on them to take part in degrading publicity stunts, they can't wait to go snuggle with Mama! They come eagerly a-scampering on tiny raccoon feet. How sad.

I guess it's possible to live a decent life devoid of dignity; clearly, a lot of us don't think dignity is important. Without it, though, the substance of a Gay Pride demonstration sure doesn't amount to much. Neither does the substance of a Gay Rights movement.

2 comments:

I cross-posted this Dumb Dora Award to the diary section of Pam's House Blend, and almost immediately, one of her blenders accused me of hating LGBT folk and wanting them to stay closeted! I don't think they know how to read standard English over there! Is it possible that some Cyberspace literacy training might be in order?

Not merely Cyberspace literacy, Don Charles, but some degree of intelligence, sensitivity, and discernment of some LGBT people so that they realize that many of them are sabotaging the fight for equal rights.

Ignorance is one thing. Arrogant ignorance is even more reprehensible! Best wishes, Jerry.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING GENDER-NEUTRAL BATHROOMS

Use of Public Restrooms is Frequently Very Dangerous for Transgender People

SETTLE FOR NOTHING LESS THAN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL!

"Where is the Life we have lost in living?Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"T. S. Eliot

A MANIFESTO FOR EMPOWERMENT

There is a point when one has to own his/her dignity, demand the respect due to any human being, demand full and equal civil and sacramental rights regardless of the negative messages and hostility that have been visited on that person in the past, or even in the present.

And those goals will not be realized as long as the minority group accepts its inferior status, and revels in it by referring to its members by the very same terms used by the most virulent homophobes throughout history and in our midst, and that some of its members burlesques their very existence by projecting images for public consumption that give further ammunition to their oppressor.

No self respecting person, Gay or Straight, stands for being treated as less than fully human; no self respecting person, Gay or Straight, uses negative self-identifiers that have been historically (and contemporarily) used by their oppressors.

It is high time that LGBT people recognize their essential normality, dignity, inherent worth, and demand full and equal civil and sacramental rights enjoyed by every other citizen!

The slave mentality is blamed on others, but the fact is that it ultimately resides within each human being whether or not to accept that mentality.

FOR LGBT CHRISTIANS AND FOR ALL CHRISTIANS TO NEVER FORGET!

TAKEN FROM "THE BELL"I am God's child (John 1:12)I am Christ's friend (John 15:15 )I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17)I am bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20)I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)I am a personal witness of Christ. (Acts 1:8)I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14)I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27)I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil 3:20)I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31 -34)am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor 5:17-21)I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39)I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor 1:21-22 )I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28 )I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16 )I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12 )I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph.2:10)I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected.(Phil. 1: 5)I have been redeemed and forgiven ( Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God'schild (Eph 1:5)

About Me

I'm Professor Emeritus of Sociology at California State University, Chico. I have been married since 1962, and my wife and I have two grown daughters. I've been an ordained priest in the Congregational Catholic Church, a division of the Independent Catholic Churches International (ICCI) that is no longer active. For many years, I have had a weekly column in the Sacramento Valley Mirror entitled, "Christianity and Society," where I deal with a variety of social issues from a biblical and sociological perspective. I also contribute regularly to the Online magazine, "Whosoever," that deals with topics of relevance to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians and their allies; I also have a web site entitled, "Radical Christianity," located at www.radicalchristianity.net, that contains some of my articles concerning "progressive Christianity," and the need for Christians worthy of the name to confront the perversions of the Gospel of grace that have gained ascendancy so as to change the face of much of the institutional "Church" in America, and threaten the very foundations of liberty and democracy in America itself.

Followers

For All Disciples of Christ

Jesus preached love amidst hatred; unity amidst divisiveness; faith amidst the legalistic religious leaders of His day...wholeness amidst the brokenhearted; freedom amidst those held in yokes of bondage...Jesus spoke truth to power, and we, as Christians, are to do no less!

THE LORD WHOM WE SERVE

"Jesus had no servants,yet they called Him Master.

Had no degree,yet they called Him Teacher .

Had no medicines,yet they called Him Healer.

Had no army,yet kings feared Him.

He won no military battles,yet He conquered the world.He committed no crime,yet they crucified Him.

He was buried in a tomb,yet He lives today.

Feel honoredto serve such a Leaderwho loves us."

FROM "THE CHRISTIAN LEFT"

"It’s easy to see the sinfulness and corruption of “the world” for what they are when you spend enough time reading what Jesus said. It has nothing to do with abortion and gay marriage. It has everything to do with the lust for money, power and control. Starving the poor and depriving the sick of health care, not caring for the least of these among us, is what angers God the most. It’s easy to see why the road is narrow. The world is very efficient at convincing even Christians that its agenda is good. When people try to carry out God’s agenda they’re labeled “Socialists” and demonized."

FROM A SERMON BY MARTIN LUTHER KING: "Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution"

"On some positions, cowardice asks the question: 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question: 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question: 'Is it popular'? But conscience asks the question: 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when a true follower of Jesus Christ must take a stand that's neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take that stand because it is right."

A CRUCIAL MESSAGE FROM DON CHARLES

"The only acceptable topping [of Christianity] is unconditional love! Top the Christian message with hatred, and it is no longer Christian. It is no longer fit to eat. Its validity, its usefulness, its whole raison d'être is erased, and instead of leading people to Heaven, it diverts them toward Hell. You cannot be a true Christian and believe it's okay for that to happen!"

MUST-READING FOR THOSE INVOLVED IN THE LGBT CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE

The following link takes you to a series of articles by Don Charles Hampton that deal with many dimensions of the LGBT Civil Rights struggle. Each of these articles are nothing short of brilliant, and are must-reading for all those who are both serious about this struggle, and who are in any way intimidated by professing "Christian" rhetoric that is used to bear false witness and defame LGBT people.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/stuffedanimal

In most Native American history, Gay, Lesbian, and/or Transgendered individuals were considered holy and treated with the highest respect. They were the historians, the healers, and the people of empowerment. They possessed the delicate balance of male and female, and were often honored for being unique and having a different spiritual calling. For their tribes, they were the mediators between the spirit world and the natural world. They were known in their separate languages as “naadle” (nad le) They who love their own kind, translation from the Navajo language; “winkte” (wink-day) would be woman, translation from the Lakota Sioux language; and “bade” (bah-day) male/female person, translation from the Hidatsa language. (By the staff of the Two-Spirit Society of Denver.)

CIVIL RIGHTS ARE NOT TO BE VOTED UPON BY THE ELECTORATE!

We can't spend our time and tremendous amounts of monies trying to get the majority of the electorate to vote for equal rights. If integration of African Americans was put on the ballot in each state during the civil rights era, we would still have segregation and Jim Crow laws! There must be meaningful, coordinated, and aggressive grassroots, street, and organizational activism, coupled with the filing of civil suits at the federal level, to achieve equal rights. "Separate is not equal," and that fact must be, and undoubtedly will be, affirmed by the Judiciary in regard to Gay people, as it was for African Americans, and not left to the will and whim of the majority of the electorate, for to do so demeans Gay people, and puts each and every minority group's rights up for grabs. We would never think of putting one or more civil rights of Jews, of African Americans, of Asians, etc. on the ballot to be voted upon, and Gay people's civil rights must not be treated any differently.

Christianity Is A Lifestyle

Christianity is a lifestyle -- a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into a clever "religion," in order to avoid the lifestyle itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain, and still believe that Jesus is their "personal Lord and Savior." The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great. - Richard Rohr

THE BIBLE IS NOT GOD

The Bible is NOT God! To elevate the Bible to the status of God, not only is an injustice to scholarship and logic, but is a direct offense against God Himself. We are to have no idols other than God, and biblical literalists and many of those who seek to counter them, both use the Bible as an idol, elevating it to the point where they explicitly or implicitly believe that it contains all of God's Word to us. Jesus is God's Word, and Jesus makes very clear what God expects of His followers: to trust God over and above seen circumstances, and to love other people! That's what puts the lie to homophobic professing Christians' selective use of certain biblical passages to "justify" and impose their hateful prejudices on others; their re-defining Christianity, and God Himself, in their own image, thereby using not only the Bible, but themselves, as their idols; ignoring Jesus' words, work, ministry, and life! The Bible is best viewed as a "finger" that points us to a couple of the many dimensions of God. What the biblical literalists do is equivalent to the following: If I ask you where you live and you point in a given direction and I just keep staring at your finger, I'll soon come to know everything about your finger, its size, shape, fingerprint, and every single detail about your finger, but I won't come any closer to knowing where you live. I have to look to the place where your finger is pointing in order to know where you live. The same holds true for those who elevate the Bible as being the "inerrant word of God." No! Only God is the Inerrant Word!

A Question That Must Be Raised in Every Public Venue

If someone is emotionally and sexually intact, why would there be a need for their obsessive condemnation of other consenting adults' emotional/sexual orientations?

LGBT PEOPLE AS "EUNUCHS SO BORN FROM THEIR MOTHER'S WOMB."

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb.... (Matthew 19:12)

I don't think any scholar who is truly spiritually sensitive can not see that "eunuchs so born from their mother's womb" refers to Gay and Transgender people who, on this earth, most closely reflect God Who is Spirit and Who transcends gender. LGBT people are God's gift to this world, and to His Church. Too many of the former largely reject that gift; Christ's Church, unfortunately, seems to comprise very few within the institutional Church.

THE CONFUSION OF "HEDONISM" WITH "GAY."

In my opinion, a distinction has to be made between "hedonism" and "Gay," and much public persona of Gay people, and the commentators on all too many LGBT-oriented sites, seem to be more hedonistic than Gay. Frivolity, indecency, and use of hateful epithets as self-identifiers tell us far more about them than it does about Gay people. They use "queer" because they feel "queer," and don't see being Gay in any other terms than being "indecent" and "abnormal." And many of them pride themselves on being outsiders! This reflects their psyches, and they are too dense to accept that fact, let alone change their rhetoric and self-perceptions. They resent anyone who tells them that they are not "mistakes," and that dignity is essential in living one's life, and they undoubtedly thrive on lack of such dignity. I learned a lot from a transgender woman, for example, when she resented the fact that I said that she wasn't a mistake! She tenaciously hung on to the fact that she is a mistake and resented any other possibility. The same is true for most Gay people who comment on assorted Gay-oriented sites. Blindly accepting the oppressor's rhetoric and actions has done inordinate harm to many LGBT people, and that's a great deal of what we must fight against.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AUGUST 4, 1857

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.

He, who begins by loving Christianity, better than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

A NOTE ON THE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE USE OF PEJORATIVE SELF-IDENTIFIERS

It is important for me to underscore the fact that some titles in this Links section, despite their often excellent content, have the word "Queer" in them, including some papers that I wrote years ago. It should be underscored that these sites’ titles spread ignorance and are counterproductive to the acquisition of full and equal civil and sacramental rights for LGBT people. The Lord doesn’t create "queer" human beings!

A QUOTE FROM ROBIN TYLER, PETITIONER-CASE TO OVERTURN PROP. 8

"No civil rights movement has EVER lost. Never. It is not a matter of if our community will win full equal rights, including marriage. It is only a matter of when. But as in all civil rights movements, we will have to fight like hell for it."

-

CESAR CHAVEZ' ADDRESS TO THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB, NOV. 9, 1984

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISM, BY DON CHARLES

1.Thou shalt not address thyself or thy kind with inaccurate, disrespectful or dehumanizing labels, nor shalt thou do or say anything to marginalize thyself or enable thy own oppression.

2.Thou shalt not treat thy moral crusade like a political campaign.Thou shalt not value the welfare of political parties over the welfare of LGBT folk, nor shalt thou bind the equality movement to any political party.

3.Thou shalt not disrespect transgender identity or transgender bodies, and thou shalt not kick thy transsexual brethren to the curb for political advantage.Thou shalt endeavor to rid thy movement of transphobia as well as biphobia, sexism, heterosexism, racism, sexual racism, ageism and class bias.

4.Thou shalt not defend, attend or fund any religious institution which preaches genocide against LGBT folk, and thou shalt pursue separation of church and state with all thy mind, heart and soul.Thou shalt directly confront religious institutions that preach LGBT genocide, and thou shalt use authentic, inclusive theology as a weapon against hateful doctrine.

5.Thou shalt not use the equality movement as thy vehicle for exhibitionism, hedonism, political ambition or self-promotion.

6.Thou shalt not excuse any form of inequality (such as exclusion from marriage or military service) on ideological grounds, and thou shalt not give LGBT equality less importance than other social issues.

9.Thou shalt access public and private education systems and use those systems to diminish fear and ignorance about LGBT people.Thou shalt not be turned aside from this goal by scurrilous accusations of "recruitment".

10.Thou shalt protect, nurture and serve as role models for LGBT youth, and thou shalt protect, honor and provide for LGBT elders.

BULLETPROOF FAITH By Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge

Every gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Christian (and others) should read this superb life-changing book that gives psychological and spiritual strategies for dealing with homophobia. [Click here to order.]

CRISIS By Mitchell Gold

A truly empowering book. The subtitle of this book tells it all: "40 Stories Revealing The Personal, Social, And Religious Pain And Trauma Of Growing Up Gay In America" [Click here to order.]

THE GOD BOX, By Alex Sanchez

GAY CHRISTIAN 101, By Rick Brentlinger

An excellent resource showing how being Gay is in no way inconsistent with being a Christian. [Click here to order.]

A PRIEST'S TALE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A GAY PRIEST By Fr. Donald Andrew Dodman

"Exploring the questions of sexuality, religion, and the way beliefs evolve throughout a lifetime, A Priest's Tale: Autobiography of a Gay Priest is a unique window on the life of a gay man whose thirty years working as a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada provide him with a particular insight into the absurdity of the human condition and the intrinsic balance existing between the flesh and the spirit." [Click here to order.]

I DO...DON'T I? By Mary Stroube

An Excellent Book on the Legal Issues Surrounding Domestic Partnerships in California [Click here to order.]

"CALL ME TROY"

This film shows the story of Rev. Troy Perry, and the activism and founding of the Metropolitan Community Churches. [Click here to order the DVD]